SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2018 8:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “The Liberated Woman”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
16:11-15
Message of the verses: “11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”
We begin by commenting on verse fifteen, the last verse in our section, and this will be the last SD on the liberated woman. We have to believe that Paul gave out the gospel message in a very clear and precise way so that the Holy Spirit of God can do His work, and in this case with Lydia. This is very important as a person has to understand that they are sinners because they are born sinners as all people are, and that God will not allow sinners who have not been washed in the blood of the Lamb to enter into His heaven. A person must also understand that they can do nothing on their own in order to be saved, as according to Ephesians 2:9 “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We cannot help God on our own to be saved, we must completely trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ which He did on the cross to save us. So we must understand we are sinners, realize we can do nothing on our own to be accepted by God, then confess we are sinners, trust Christ completely for our salvation as we believe He died for our sins, and then receive Christ into our lives. Paul wrote to the Corinthians “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4).”
We move on looking at verse fifteen seeing that Lydia and
her household were immediately baptized, and this was the way that people did
it in the early church. Now as far as
saying “her household” which is similar to what happened to the jailor in 16:33
we realize that her households had to believe in the gospel just as Lydia and
the jailor did. What we have in these
two cases is the beginning of the Philippian church. One more thing to note and that is that
baptism does not save us; it is just a picture of what Christ did for us. As a person goes under the waters of baptism
it is a picture of Christ dying and being buried, and then as they are raised
up out of the water it is a picture of Christ’s resurrection. Baptism in a true believer’s life always
happens after salvation occurs, and not before.
I have quoted Ephesians 2:8-10 in many of my Spiritual
diaries as it shows the order of what happens to a person who is saved and we
can see this order in the life of Lydia.
“8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Notice that Paul is saying that this is what happened to the Ephesians,
seen in verse eight. Then he goes on to
say that salvation is not a result of works, but then in verse ten he states
that a person will do good works after they are saved, and I believe that God
planned these good works for a person in eternity past. So as we look at what happened to Lydia in
our verses from Acts we see that God opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message of salvation, and
then she was baptized, and now we see in the last part of verse fifteen the good works that she
was doing “"If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my
house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.’” We see the good work of hospitality from
Lydia, and every believer, according to Romans 12:13; Heb. 13:2; and 1 Pet. 4:9
is required to do this work of hospitality.
I have to say that this gift is especially seen in the lives of woman in
the Bible and by doing this work Lydia shows that she truly is a liberated
woman, a woman who has been liberated by the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing this was to her and to her
family and to those that she will eventually meet and tell her story so others
can be saved.
In our next SD we will take a short look at the woman who
was enslaved, which will not take nearly as much time as it did to look at
Lydia, the liberated woman.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to do
the works that the Lord has planned for me to do in eternity past, as I seek
the Lord to find out what He desires me to do.
I know that one of those things it to tell others about how they can
experience the same salvation that Lydia experienced, and I look forward to
seeing her in heaven one day.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord as my wife and I go to look at
another nursing home that we may want her father to go to, trust the Lord’s
guiding and to give us wisdom.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Where is the promise of His
coming?” (2 Peter 3:4).
Today’s Bible
question: Complete Revelation 3:20 “’Behold,
I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him and”
Answer in our next SD.
4/19/2018 9:16 AM
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